Careers advice and information for Brighton

Redundancy - finding a job

News papers and online jobcentres are full of job offers, so
why is it so difficult to find a job when you have recently been made
redundant?

Why do you have to apply for up to two hundred jobs to get one?

Firstly of course you have to relate to the emotions it has
stirred in you – the feeling of unjust. 'It is not fair' – that state of mind
is hard to come to terms with. These painful emotions and then the anger it has
stirred as well. On top of everything you may be in despair having lost your
house and getting divorced. Whilst containing this ocean of mixed emotions you
have to carry on with your life and all the obligations you have to meet.

Feelings of mixed nature

Feel pleased you are not one of my children then, because we
have had an unusual journey in life and all they heard from me was that 'The
art in life is to cope with frustrations'. They learnt to go for anger walks
and behave themselves regardless how difficult their lives were. I told them to
rise above the feelings of inadequacy and embarrassment. Having said that it is
a normal situation worldwide that your company has to close down or cut costs,
so it is not embarrassing that we have to meet a structure change in the world
as such. It is a very interesting challenge actually, seen from an
environmentally point of view I think.

Updating your skills

When you then eventually sit down to write a CV and discover
that you haven't updated your skills for a while – which in some cases can be
ten years or more then you know intuitively that you have to do something.

Where do you begin with updating your skills, what would be
the best way to go about it? Sometimes a computer course since everything in
the world is computerized might be a very good idea. ECDL European Computer
Driving Licence - will make you a super user and most companies would
appreciate this detail.

Then of course look at what skills/qualifications are
important within your trade or for the job you would like to have from now on.
Try to spend some time visualising where you want to be with your life.

Where there is a will there is a way so why not try to get
to the place you actually always wanted to be. When one of my friends lost his
top job during the last recession in 1989 he took a job as a taxi driver
because he couldn't make ends meet. He thought if he put a window in the big
room in the basement they could have a lodger to help with the bills. Whilst he
was hammering the brick stones out because he was fuming with anger and disorientated
as to why he lost his job he got an idea. He had just been promoted and three
months later he was told the company had to cut 25% of the staff and he was one
of them. Because he had been promoted and therefore more expensive for the
company it was worth their while getting rid of him. Even if you can understand
it literally it can be so difficult to understand emotionally. So whilst he was
raging and hammering with that basement window he suddenly remembered that he
always actually wanted his own shop. He was trained in the clothes industry –
so he put his mind to this thought and within the next year he opened his first
shop. He told me he had never been so happy in his life, and he has opened one
shop after the other and his chain of shops is now 15 in Copenhagen. It is
exciting of course how he will deal with this recession but that remain to be
seen.

Anger

One of my friends is a surgeon specialised in arms, hands
and hip operations. He told me a little while ago that he had so many patients
with broken bones in their hands and he couldn't understand why. When I
attended a conflict course run by a specialist police trainer he showed how
security guards confronted an angry man and how this guy smashed his hand into
the wall because he didn't want to fight with two big body guards so with the
anger boiling in his mind he hit something nearby and I could suddenly see what
happens.

I am a Reiki II healer and know that anger sits in your feet
and therefore if you go for a nice long walk and place your feet – or stamp
your feet you release the anger/stress and feel better. In the case with above
mentioned man he actually did self harm. Mental pain is sometimes easier to
carry if it is physically visible – so you either twist your ankle, break an
arm, cut yourself with a knife or similar. Your family or friends mostly cannot
see your emotional pain, but if it is manifested physically it is visible and
you get a bit more sympathy from your surroundings'.

I strongly believe in anger walks and kick those legs
without bruising yourself, but in this way getting rid of anger which is such
strong emotions. It is so refreshing to go for a walk on a really windy day as
the wind 'brushes away the cob webs' and ill feelings in the body.

It all helps to keep up the good spirits it takes to get a
job. It is easy to feel your soul destroyed by going to a lot of job interviews
but either getting small jobs that don't match your outgoings or nothing at
all.

Internships - Charity

One way of updating your CV is to take on internships – you
won't be paid but hopefully the company that gives you a chance will invest
time and effort in educating you in agreed tasks for future reference. Perhaps
your favourite charity has an unpaid job for you; it does help overcome hurt
emotions to help others and will be a bonus for your CV later.

When my bookings failed last year in my case, I didn't get
the expected return on a mail shot and soon realised we were heading for
another recession I just carried on building my network on various networking
sites like LinkedIn and Ecademy. Having said that I also got a part time job to
fit in with the workshops I am running and at the moment I have one Internship
student working with me and we know it is difficult so take this into consideration
and avoid being downhearted because everyone in the world is going through this
change and shortness of money at all levels.

Remember your smile is the most beautiful flower on earth.

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About The Author

This article was written by Sussi Lassen of Improve Your English International LLP

Author Profile

Improve your English International LLP is an accredited TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Language School based in Brighton UK. Our course leaders come from a wide variety of backgrounds which enables us to match their skills and knowledge to your particular requirements.

Author's Contact Details

BrightonJobSearch are very grateful to Sussi Lassen and Improve Your English International LLP for taking the time to provide this advice, please use the contact details above if you'd like to contact Improve Your English International LLP.

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